The traditional Barisan Nasional stronghold Johor will have an additional 16 state seats, increasing the total number of seats to 56.

A Bernama report said the State Constitution Amendment Bill was approved unanimously by the state assembly this morning.

The 16 new constituencies are Pemanis, Kemelah, Gambir, Sungai Abong, Yong Peng, Semarang, Senggarang, Machap, Mahkota, Kahang, Johor Lama, Penawar, Puteri Wangsa, Johor Jaya, Bukit Batu and Pekan Nenas.

The bill was tabled by Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman, who said the move was timely in view of the increase in the state's population by 25.14 percent between 1991 and 2000.

He added that the number of voters have also climbed to 1,223,532 in 2001.

Parliamentary seats

Johor also has an additional six Parliamentary seats bringing the total number of seats in the state to 26.

The Dewan Rakyat approved amendments to the Federal Constitution to provide for the additional parliamentary seats.

All the state and parliamentary seats in Johor are controlled by the ruling coalition. Over the years, opposition parties have failed to make any impact in the state.

In the last elections, their candidates suffered heavy defeats in the hands of ruling politicians.

The Election Commission had also recently carried out a nationwide re-delineation exercise which drew flak from opposition parties, which claimed the move favoured BN.

However, the commission chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman has denied this.